noise thru tube pre??

Does it strike anyone else as odd that we (Audiophiles) expend great effort in selecting isolation equipment (brass cones vs aluminum cones, tennis balls vs. ball bearings, etc) to isolate a component such as a solid state amp or preamp, or CD player (or even a cable) which you can tap on as hard as you want without ever getting the slightest piff of sound through the speakers, but are willing to sit a pair of monoblocks with exposed tubes, which are commonly microphonic, right next to the speakers?

LOL, good point Honest1.

Honest1, LOL. Just too much. I'm going to avoid temptation just this once. No comment!!

Honest1, you nailed it, babe. I kept my 150lb/each Pass X-600s 6ft behind and towards the center of the two speakers. If I could have put them in an adjoining room without an excessive speaker cable run I probably would have been happier.

I’ve always looked at setups with the mono tube amps next to the speakers and shuddered. To the uninitiated in tube amps (me) it appears that one of the many bass drum whacks in the “Rite of Spring” could turn KT88s into interesting fireworks displays. I’ve been meditating a tube excursion in the near future and would love to read comments by present tube amp owners on this subject.

Regards,

If you must put tube equipment in the same end of the room as the speakers usually you can put it in the center of the space between the speakers. Just put on some bass heavy music and move about finding the location where the bass response is minimal, usually well away from the back or side walls behind the speakers where the bass is reinforced by the boundries. If you are into TT's the same rational used for locating a turntable can be used for tube equipment.

FWIW, I've never thought that power tubes suffered very much, if at all, from the vibrations created by the speakers, but the small tubes are another issue. I have put large mono tube amps very near speakers (between the speakers) without any issues, but as indicated above I shy away from small tubes that aren't free of microphonics.